Mass Effect: A Light in the Shadows
by CharlieRiggs
Summary: David Anderson can't bare to watch the girl he saved from Saren's bombing so many years ago spiral down the drain because of her hatred towards Turians, yet he's resistant to allow her to help him in his duty's as an alliance soldier. All this changes when Shepard seizes control of the Normandy and goes after Saren, the fact that Charlie wanted him dead only seemed like a plus...
1. Grissom

**_A/N: This is a project to see how well I can integrate Charlie into the Normandy and it's family. I have intentions of making this into a series that follows Charlie's life through the Mass Effect Trilogy, making it as different from the original story as possible, and eventually a sequel to the war against the Reapers. In this particular work of fiction, I am using Felicia Day as Charlie and Jensen Ackles as Shepard. _  
**

Charlie took one last look around the room she'd shared with three other girls since she was thirteen, the two bunk beds where always in disarray, and their cloths often spread across the floor for all to see until finally Kahlee or one of the other supervisors got angry enough to make the girls clean themup, but not today. She made sure her bed was made and all her old clothes where distributed to the other girls, considering she was only allowed to bring a footlocker of things.

Being an orphan wasn't so bad, it's being an orphan adopted into a military life style that really got under her skin. Her "_Guardians_" where two good friends with important military careers. Kahlee Sanders was her mother figure, assigned to Grissom Academy, where she took care of biotic kids in need. Captain David Anderson, Her father figure, was currently Commanding The Normandy.

_The Normandy._ The red headed girl glared up at the picture she'd pinned above the head of her bed, it had been there since Anderson discovered the ship, and he'd promised Charlie that with all her good work and hard effort, she'd be able to serve on her first ship under his leadership.

She was turning twenty in a few months, her guardians couldn't keep telling her she was a baby for long before she would begin to correct them, she was more than well prepared to be out on her own, and she was excited to finally be getting off this station.

"Can't wait, can you?" One of the younger girls asked when she walked into the room and saw Charlie lying on her bed upside down, staring at the picture of the ship. Charlie looked over and identified the girl as Sandra, the fifteen year old biotic, one of the 3 girls she shared her room with. Sandra had brown eyes and light brunette hair that was pulled back in a small pony tail, the girl had a pretty face, too, but physical relationships where frowned upon at Grissom, so looks were... _overlooked_.

"Wouldn't you be excited if you've lived here as long as I have and you're just now getting a ride off?" She asked, rolling over onto her stomach and coddling into her pillow. The other girl nodded, before placing a wrapped box beside Charlie's head on the pillow. The girl peaked up from her fluffy heaven and frowned at the box ."What's that?"

"A going away present. From all of us. We know you don't like it here, but we'll miss you." Sandra offered, Charlie sat up on the bed and pulled the wrapping from the jewelry box and opened it, a well sized ruby jewel glimmered up at her from it's gold chain. "Red looks best on you. And green." The girl complimented shyly. This was a beautiful gift, considering the trouble she knew all the students went through to get it. Charlie had gotten herself into some pretty deep stuff a few years ago on the Citadel that forced Kahlee to take away Charlie's leaves, and chain her to the Ascension.

Charlie picked the necklace up by the chain and gasped, quick to pull the girl into a hug, Ever since little Sandra's arrival at Grissom all those years ago, her only real friend was Charlie, who managed to bring all the kids of the academy together as friends and as a squad. The kids all threw in to get Charlie a beautiful goodbye present, and they'd sent Sandra, the runt of the group, to receive the thank you. "It's beautiful, Sandra."

"We figured it could be your good luck charm, and it'll always remind you of us." The teen took the necklace from Charlie and helped to latch it around her neck.

"Thank you, and all the other kids for me later, okay?" She held her hair out of Sandra's way to quicken the process, before turning back around and reaching for her friends hands. "And don't forget to write me, Sandra, 'cause your still like a little sister to me. You remember the name of the ship, right?"

"The SSV Normandy." Sandra repeated for the dozenth time with a smirk. "Don't forget to write me back."

Charlie shook her head. "I've got too many important people here to just forget about this place. Even though I will be away, I will never let anything happen to this place or you, okay?"

"Okay..." Sandra breathed.

"Charlie, The Normandy is about to dock." Kahlee's voice crackled through her Omni-Tool. She gave her friend one more hug and retrieved her bag from under her bed. "Meet me in my office, please."

"Yes, Mrs. Sanders." Charlie replied coolly, before hearing her Omni-Tool beep, a sign that meant that they where alone again. "You take care, Sandra... You're the #1 now." She offered with a smug grin.

The girl shook her head. "I think Carlos already has his eye on the CS position."

Don't let him take that spot away from you." Charlie pushed. "You're a good biotic. If you want to follow in my footsteps and get off this trap like I did, you'll take the position."

But Sandra was not convinced. "I'm only fifteen, no one will take me serious."

Charlie was tired of hearing this kind of talk. She didn't get where she was by complaining about being too young, because if she weren't, there was a good posibility she would have never gotten the chance for revenge against Saren. "How old was I when I started training with Kahlee for the CS position?"

"Thirteen." Sandra answered, her eyes sinking to the floorboards.

"And you're like two years older than that! Come one, Sandra, you're never going to get off this station if you cant take the training seriously."Charlie attempted to rise the girls spirits, but when the girl didn't respond, she had no choice but to grab her bag and make for Kahlee's office, turning to face her friend once more when she reached the doorway, and leaned against the frame. "I really hope you reconsider about the position, Kahlee isn't going to sit by and wait while you make up your mind."

Sandra nodded as she watched her best friend leave their room for the last time; Charlie would not be coming back to Grissom if she could help it, she had every intention of breaking free.

Charlie reached Kahlee's office, which was a good 10-15 minute walk from her quarters, and wasn't surprised when she practically walked in on Kahlee and Anderson catching up. Mostly about Charlie's routine, her skill level, and whether or not Anderson should submit her name for Shepard's squad. Kahlee disagreed with Anderson's doubts about the girl; she was talented and had done some incredible feats in her days at Grissom, she was more than ready. Charlie stood still a few feet from the door, out of their sites and listened.

"We will see if Shepard even needs an extra body after his mission on Eden Prime. She is, after all, only a child." Anderson argued, Charlie felt her heartbeat quicken, but it was her biotics that gave her away- Kahlee knew when Charlie was aggravated, the energy seeped from her like an endless power source.

"You have been out of her life for far too long if you still see Charlie as a child, she's almost 20!" Kaylee replied, getting out of her seat and walking over to the girl, who took a few hesitant steps into Kahlee's office. "She should have been able to make the decision to leave this station when she turned 18, but I agreed with you that she needed to have supervision because of this crap with Saren. Now, either you're going to take Charlie aboard the Normandy and put her training to use or I swear to god, Anderson, I will set her free right now, and not even care about the damage she might do to the Turians!"

Their disagreements where always short-lived. Anderson bickered, Kahlee set him straight, and they lived happily until the next argument, that's always how it'd been. Charlie was glad to know that Kahlee didn't like seeing Charlie stuck here and unhappy with her life, she might as well have stayed with her colony and died. Anderson finally gave a curt nod before picking up the file of Charlie's alliance records off Kahlee's desk and sighing. Now that they where done arguing, Kahlee turned to the redhead and continued with her goodbyes.

"We'll miss you, Charlie. You're the best damn CS I've ever had the pleasure of raising." Kahlee stated with a slick smile. "Shepard would be lucky to have you on his team, but don't go all biotic bitch on him if he decides otherwise, okay? You're talents are always better used somewhere else." Charlie nodded, nervously tucking her red hair behind an ear as she listened to the adults, and realized that now more than ever, she felt like a child between two bickering parents.

Kahlee wasn't finished. She walked over to where Anderson was standing and dug her index finger into his chest. "You need to let her show you what she can do." She poked at his chest. "You can't keep denying her this, Anderson! She want's to help you!" Another poke, Anderson glanced down at her arm and frowned, annoyed, before she pulled away and shot him a look. Anderson didn't want to see Charlie getting involved in politics and N7, he wanted a normal life for her after he saved her from Saren's destruction, so his hesitance to throw her to Shepard was foreseen.

"Very well." The commander agreed after a moment of long silence. "Charlie, we need to get you settled onto the Normandy. Kahlee, it was nice seeing you again." Charlie gave a sly grin, Kahlee won again.


	2. Integration

The docking bay wasn't far from Kahlee's office, it wasn't long before Charlie was staring at one of the most breathtaking ships of the alliance to date. Anderson stopped and turned to face her when they reached the decontamination door. "Welcome aboard the SSV Normandy, we only have one rule here and that is that peace between the species comes first. We do not tolerate juvenile behavior towards one another, we are considered a family."

"Understood, Sir."

"I'm guessing you have been looking forward to this for some time." He didn't ask, but stated in a casual tone as he spun on his heels and the Normandy's decontamination doors gave way.

"I have." She answered truthfully, following him into the chamber. "My training was completed years ago, but after my accident I was kinda banned from leaving, so I hung around and perfected my talents." The scanning was complete now, but the two stayed between the doors to finish their conversation.

"Accident?" His eyebrow arced questioningly.

Charlie blinked blankly before the realization hit her; She'd never gotten the time to explain it to Anderson. Plus, he'd been way too pissed at her for her to talk to him back then, though now she admits it was cowardly, he should be the first she would tell. "It's not what you think."

"We will talk about this later, Charlie." The Captain ordered, turning to really enter the ship, making a sharp left into the cockpit. The girl however, observed her new surroundings, the flow of the ship. Once her eyes adverted toward the pilot, he swung his chair around to get a good look at her, and she offered him an innocent wave. "This is our Pilot, Jeff, and Alenko, one of Shepard's squad." Anderson introduced the two hurriedly. "This is Charlie, our newest recruit."

"Hello. Let me know if you need your coffee refilled or anything, it's not like he's going to put my talents to use." She joked sarcastically, earning a stare down from Anderson.

"Alenko, I want you to assess Charlie's readiness, I trust your judgement." He ordered. "And do it before Eden Prime."

"So you don't trust Kahlee's?" Charlie asked, bemused. It was her turn to raise an eyebrow in curiosity. She'd have to mention this in one of her letters, later.

"I didn't say that, I'm just saying that you shouldn't be thrown into battle like some kind of weapon of mass destruction." Anderson stated. Charlie's jaw clenched.

"You can't keep protecting me forever, Anderson. Kahlee knows I'm ready, I know I'm ready, the only one you're fooling is yourself." She shot. Her words hit him hard but he knew she was right. "Besides, it looks like you're starting to get a little soft around the edges, old man." She joked, earning a snicker from the boys. "I am a lot stronger than you are."

"How do you know that?" He challenged. She pointed at the files in his hand.

"all my combat records are in there." Anderson shook his head disproving of her and sighed heavily before giving in.

"We'll see, but for now I want to get back to my quarters and do a little light reading." He chuckled, flipping through the pages of her file. "Set a course to Eden Prime, Joker." He said as he turned and made for the CIC, leaving Charlie to roam the ship as she pleased.

"Aye, aye, Captain."Joker responded as he undocked the Normandy. "I would like that coffee now, if you don't mind."

Charlie nodded, just happy to help. Yeah, okay... Where is the kitchen in this beast?"

"I'll show ya around." Kaidan offered, getting up out of the co-pilot seat and grinning widely as he asked her to follow him. "So, what brings you aboard the Normandy?"

"Oh, you know... It was just time to leave Grissom behind and move on with my life." She shrugged, absorbing the CIC as they walked past, but she was hesitant to leave it behind, an turned on her heels to continue staring at the holos as she walked backwards...

Into Presley. She spun around to look at him as he worked the wrinkles out of his coat and gave her a once-over. "Oh, my. I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to..." He held his hand up palm out, signaling for her to be quiet. Her mouth snapped shut and her big green eyes were wide with guilt.

"Don't worry about it, at least you're not a Turian..." The bald man said with a sigh, wiping nervous sweat off his brow. The corner of Charlie's mouth twitched as she contemplated this. Presley's eyes darted to Alenko, as he asked, "Have you seen Nihlus?"

"Not since we docked at Grissom, Sir." The Lt. answered.

"This is crazy! Why do we need a Turian spectre and the ruthless commander shepard that sacrificed 3/4ths of his men on Torfan just to do a simple pick up run at Eden Prime? The ship isn't even equip with a full crew, we're running on a skeleton right now!" Charlie had wondered why the ship seemed so bare, but she didn't really know any details about what they where supposted to be doing down on Eden Prime.

"Captain Anderson said that the ship's main goal is to contain peace between the species." She interjected, confusion written in her features as she furrowed her eyebrows and frowned. So why would he hire a speciest for his #1 navigator? He obviously had more issues with the aliens than she did.

"This ship is a human vessel, I just don't think we should allow these aliens to insist that their "People" stay aboard just to spy on us!" The navigator argued.

"Actually the files stated that this ship was a combined effort between the humans and the Turians, if anything the Turians should at least be able to keep an eye on their envestments." Charlie couldnt believe her own ears,she was sticking up for the turians! her hand fluttered to her forehead, where she checked her temperature, but detected no spike in her body heat.

"What files?" Pressly asked, folding his arms over his chest and giving her a sour look.

"I asked Kahlee for the Alliance records of everything that is and is in this ship, including personel." Charlie confessed. "She figured my nose being buried in those files was better than sitting around Grissom all day with nothing to do but plan my grand escape. Unfortunately, the info I got was scarce. Just the info on the ship and eight specific dossiers."

"that's all very interesting, but I would really like my coffee now." Joker chuckled sarcastically through the loudspeaker above them. Pressely muttered something under his breath and turned back to his holo keys, and Charlie and Kaidan continued toward the steps. _Damn her for even suggesting the stupid coffee..._

"So how do you know Anderson?" Kaidan continued with his questions, but was not answered immediately. Charlie hesitated uncomfortably, and he sensed he was being too nosey. "I'm sorry, you don't have to answer that."

"No, it's okay. Family ties." She sighed, following him down the stairs. once they reached the second deck, they walked intothe mes hall and charlie placed what little of her things she still possessed on a vacant table, before looking to find the coffee machine siting on the island. Someone had just made a freash pot, leaving more than half behind.

"Oh. How do you know you're stronger than him?" He glanced over at the small girl, who shrugged.

"Let's just say, the last person to have been charged by me and lived compared it to being hit by a semi-truck going 165 miles per hour." She stated with a mischevious giggle. Alenko was in shock; he'd heard of cases like this before, people so in-tune with their biotics that they could use their bodies to surge with powerful energies for long amounts of time.

"So them you've been a biotic..."

"All my life." Charlie said proudly, a grin planted across her face. "Can also thank the Alliance for slapping every single little bit of advanced tech implants in me, too, I suppose." Or maybe it was when Saren infected her with radiation the night he blew up her colony... whichever, she couldn't be sure now, not that it mattered. She was what she was.

"Use them for what they're good at." Kaidan chuckled, but a scowl still hung low on his face. "Just tell me that you didn't have to go through hell..."

"I didn't." She cut him off, turning to the coffee pot to start making Jokers coffee as a good diversion. "My childhood was fine, but you have to understand that I was trained since birth to be a powerful biotic. I have to put that energy to use ." She put the coffee together in a container and turned to hand it to Alenko. "What's with the 20 questions?"

He shrugged. "Just want to get to know you." He picked up the warm canister and gave her a sly wink. "catch you later, recruit." He dissmissed himself with a sarcastic salute before returning to joker in the cockpit with his coffee. Charlie's cheeks radiated as she watched him leave, and then she was alone again.


	3. Eden Prime

The stasis pods where made so that a normal sized human could rest inside comfortably, without feeling like they where standing... Charlie was pretty average sized, yet she found her pod small and tight. Her breathing grew shallow and she began to sweat profoundly. Feeling the pressure build in her bladder, Charlie hit the release button that opened the pod and fumbled out, her foot caught on the steel step at the bottom of the bed, and she fell out into the hallway on her hands and knees.

Joker, having innocently looked through the camera feeds hooked up through the Normandy, saw Charlie take her fall and worried enough to check the pods readings before calling out to her through the comm. "_Charlie, you okay? That pod is giving me some strange readings_."

She rubbed the tired out of her eyes with the back of her hand and positioned herself to sit on the floor like a lost child as she regained all her senses and let out a loud groan. "Like what?"

"Y_our biotics seem to be playing tricks on the pod... I think it would be a better idea for you to sleep in the med bay from now on_." Joker informed, Charlie felt her eyes roll tiredly behind closed lids. She would have never guessed suffering from an explosion as a young child could do so much for her biotics, it was almost as if she were nuclear. "_We are an hour from Eden Prime, give or take. If you want, you can go freshen yourself up and join me up here for the mission_."

She nodded, picking herself up off the cold floor and making her way to the woman's bathroom. "I'll be up in 10."

* * *

"Hitting the relay in 3... 2... 1..." Joker counted down into the comm. Charlie, who'd had her nose buried deep into an alien dictionary for the past 30 minutes in the back of the cockpit, snapped the book shut and pushed her glasses up the rim of her nose with her index finger, eager to see some action. As the ship was thrust into unfamiliar space, a grin spread across her face like that of a childs seeing Christmas morning for the very first time. "Thrusters... check. Navigation... check. Internal Emissions sink engaged. All systems online. Drift... just under 1500k."

Nihlus, a Turian with white war paint that masked his face stood behind Joker and watched as they jumped through the relay. "1500 is good. You're Captain will be pleased." When no one added anything more, he turned and looked Charlie head to toe, his mandibles twitching uncomfortably before he left them in the cockpit.

"I hate that guy." Joker commented quietly when Nilhus was out of ear shot.

"Nihlus gave you a compliment... so you hate him?" Alenko wondered, bewildered.

"You remember to zip up your jumpsuit on the way out of the bathroom? That's good. I just jumped us halfway across the Galaxy and hit a target the size of a pinhead. So that's incredible!" He joked playfully, receiving a giggle from Charlie, who missed the infamous Earth hero walk into the cockpit... It wasn't until he stood at attention between Joker and Alenko in his black and red N7 Armor, that she realized he was there. his skin tone bronze, green eyes, and short blonde hair could send any earth girl into a craze, but the commander had a reputation... "Besides, Spectres are trouble. I don't like having one on board. Call me paranoid."

"You're paranoid. The council helped fund this project, they have a right to send someone to keep an eye on their investment." Kaidan argued.

"Yeah, that is the official story. But only an idiot believes the official story." Joker shrugged.

"Always expect the worst." Shepard supported Joker's argument with a curt nod.

"Bad feelings are an occupational hazard. We don't go somewhere unless there's a good reason, so what are we doing here?"

"_Joker!_" Anderson's voice rang over the comm. "_Status report._"

"Just cleared the Mass relay, Captain. Stealth systems engaged. Everything looks solid." The pilot reported.

"_Good. Find a comm buoy and link us into the network. I want mission reports relayed back to alliance brass before we reach Eden Prime._"

"Aye, aye, Captain. Better brace yourself, sir. I think Nihlus is headed your way."

"_He's already here, Lieutenant_." Anderson informed, Joker shook his head disapprovingly. "_Tell Commander Shepard to meet me in the comm room for a debriefing._"

Joker turned to look up at Shepard. "You get that, commander?"

"I'm on my way." Shepard reported, turning to leave the cockpit.

"_Pfft_. Is it just me, or is the captain always a little pissed off?"

"Only when he's talking to you, Joker." Kaidan joked. Joker's fingers danced around his holo keys, and a video popped into view in from of him, a woman in white and pink heavy armor yelling at the camera man to get down before an explosion knocked him on his ass. Charlie slid to the edge of her seat to get a better look at the warfare going on around the soldiers.

"_We are under attack, taking heavy casualties. I repeat, heavy casualties! We can't... et evac... They came out of nowhere. We need..._" Something grabbed the soldier from behind and pulled him out of the camera view. The camera focused in the sky, where a massive ship entered the planet's atmosphere it's many limbs reaching out for anything it could find.

Joker paused the video and paged the Anderson. "Captain, we got a problem." He reported.

"_What's wrong, Joker?_" The Captain asked.

"Transmission from Eden Prime, Sir. You better see this."

"Bring it up on screen."

Joker complied, the situation seemed to have pulled itself into an emergency. After The video played a few more times, Charlie had the ship image burned into her brain, she could hear Alenko being called to gear up from his earpiece, and wished she could go down to help to colony, with him.

"Yes, sir." Alenko replied, getting up out of his seat and saluting his companions before he left to complete his mission, a mission he knew was possible he wouldn't survive. But Kaidan was a soldier, he would give his life for the cause. As the man left, Joker frowned over at the empty seat to his right and then back to Charlie.

"This is why I asked you to come up here." He admitted, pressing some holo keys and three blank viewing screens appeared horizontally above them. Charlie got out of her seat against the back of the pit and claimed Alenko's before the feed could start.

"You're not going to get in trouble for showing me video feed, are you?" She asked teasingly. He waved her off with a '_pfft_'.

"You need to know what your up against, I think that's a bit more important than breaking regs." He said sternly.

She looked over at Joker, who managed to keep his eyes locked onto the holoscreens in front of him, and grinned. "I don't buy it." He caught her smile out of the corner of his eye and frowned; she'd caught him in his lie.

"I've only known you for a few hours, and I already see my sister in you." He joked, when she didn't respond he glanced over to her and was met by a scowl. "_What?_"

"There is something you're not telling me."

Joker stilled for a moment, his eyes shifting from the screens to her quickly as he contemplated it... "Fine... you win, _Hillary_."

"Hillary is your sister?" Charlie asked curiously. She didn't have the blonde hair Hillary had, but they did share similar eye color, which were a dark jungle green.

"Yes." He didn't expect her little question to distract her from their conversation. "And If you must know, Anderson let me read your Dossier while you where '_sleeping_'." He made air quotes with his hands before they quickly reverted back to his handiwork... "Anyone who can scare the shit out of the Turians is a friend of mine."

Charlie frowned, as far as she knew, the Alliance had nothing to do with her incident on the Citadel. "What did my Dossier say about Turians?"

"You didn't honestly think the Alliance didn't know everything there was to know about you, did you?" Joker asked, not even waiting for a response before he continued. "You where practically born into Brass. They have you're every move on file, **_they own you_**."

"Own?" Charlie had never seen her history with the Alliance like that, but she supposed it was true. They'd paid for her to live most her life, and fitted her with the best implants money could buy.

"I just have to ask one question, though." Joker continued, "Why'd you do it?"

"Do what?" Her eyebrows furrowed at this, confused.

"Kill all those Turians in cold blood! I mean, I've got some pretty bad issues with the aliens myself, but nothing that drastic."

"I'm sorry, I still don't know what you're talking about." Charlie insisted innocently. He frowned, pulled up the dossier on the holoscreen and began to read from it.

"_The Alliance Brass has reason to believe that Charlotte Analise Riggs-Anderson assassinated a group of off-duty Turian C-Sec officers on leave aboard the Citadel._ The few onlookers that where there said you had no reason to do it." _Assassinated?_ If Anderson really did believe she was capable of murdering innocent people for her own pleasure, it could very well be the reason he'd wanted to leave her behind on Grissom.

"I was young and drunk... and stupid." she stated deftly.

"Tell me how it really went down." He prodded.

"_Alright, Shepard. This is your mission now. Get to the beacon at any cost._" Anderson echoed through through the cockpit as the screens blinked to life. The cams where labeled with the soldiers name in the lower left corner, Jenkins was on their far left, Shepard in the middle, and Alenko to the right, in front of Charlie. The planet's surface was much like earth, but it's skies where dyed red like blood.

"Welcome to Eden Prime." Joker mused.

"Be a better welcome if I where actually on the planet." She sighed, resting her head in the palm of her hand as she tried to relax in her seat. As the team moved forward, Joker glanced at her and chuckled as he shook his head, amused by her insanity. She inhaled deeply and gave in. "You want to know about what really happened on the Citadel?"

"Don't make me get on my hands and knees and beg." Joker said sarcastically. It was her turn to shake her head at him, but at least he managed to get her to crack a smile.

"It was my sixteenth birthday, Kahlee sent me to the Citadel for some well needed R&R. I managed to snag a fake I.D. from some petty criminal and convince the bartender at Chora's Den that I was old enough to be served. I got really drunk by the time a few Turians came by and started to bug me..." She trailed off, folding her arms over her chest and gazing out the window to her right.

"How?"

She shrugged. "There where only four officers... I was too drunk to remember what they looked like."_ All Turians looked the same to her, anyways._ "They just kept saying that I was too young to be there... So I challenged them." She glanced at Joker, who raised his eyebrow at her. Upon seeing his confusion, she explained further, "I read somewhere that Turians are known to duel to settle disagreements, and I figured it was a great chance to prove that I was much more powerful than I looked. Anyways, after some... _words_ were exchanged..." She shrugged again. "I lost control. I never really meant to hurt them, but I slipped into a blind rage..."

"I see. So they just threw you back into the tower and locked the door, eh?" He joked, as Jenkins' cam flickered black. He was right, she was a prisoner in her own home, and it scared her that she'd never seen it that way before now. "Normandy to shore party, Jenkins cam just went dark, do you need assistance?"

Alenko knelt down beside his fallen teammate and checked for a pulse. "_Ripped right through his sheilds..._"

"_We can't stop now, soldier. We need to get to that beacon._" Shepard ordered.

"_I..._" Alenko hesitated.

"_At any cost, Lieutenant!_" The commander bellowed, causing his teammate to jump in surprise. He closed the dead mans eyes, sending him into death with his honor, before getting up off his knees and rejoining Shepard.

"_Aye, aye, Commander_." He murmured.

"_Normandy, we got this. Shep out._" The commander barked, Joker rolled his eyes as he glanced over at the now-empty pilot seat to his right. Charlie was on her feet behind him, ready to jump out the air lock.

"You heard the man. '_They got this_'. Your not going anywhere anytime soon, so just sit your happy ass back down, Princess." He ripped on her, earning the middle finger as she retreated to her seat, and he closed Jenkins feed with a sigh. Shepard and Alenko continued towards the dig site, and discovered one of the few surviving marines, who was being chased by Geth troopers. They helped her fight them off before Shepard questioned Williams, who couldn't explain why the Geth where there, but they wiped out her whole unit. Shepard asked her to take them to the beacon, and Charlie and Joker watched silently as she led them to the dig site, but the beacon had been moved. She paid little attention to the conversation due to the fact that Jealousy was peaking around the corner of her budding personality.

"_By who?_" Alenko asked, "_Our side, or the Geth?_"

"_Maybe the scientists moved it to the spaceport when that mother ship landed._" Ash said, hopeful. As they examine the nearby camp, the squad run into a group of human corpses reanimated by the geth, which they manage to kill.

"_What are those things?_"

"_Husks. Geth stick human corpses on those spikes and it turns them into mindless synthetic zombies._" Ash informed, shaken as they continue towards the spaceport where Nihlus agreed to meet with them.

"_Commander, that looks like Nihlus..._" Alenko pointed towards the mass of a black figure slumped over on the ground of the spaceport. The commander hoisted his pistol and made a dash for the Turian. When they approached, Ashley frowned down at the dead body.

"_A Turian? You knew him?_"

"_He was with us aboard the Norm-_" A crate fell, the team pulled out their weapons simultaneously and aimed them at the dockworker that had been in hiding behind the wall of crates.

"_Wait! Don't shoot, I'm one of you! I'm human!_" The man cried, hiding behind his arms like they would have protected him had the team decided to go trigger happy.

"_Why where you hiding behind crates while your colony got abducted by aliens? You didn't think to help them out?_" Shepard growled angerly, his riddical trained between the dockworker's eyes.

"_Wha-,_" The dockworker stuttered, confused. "_I don't even have a weapon! Besides, I saw what happened to that Turian, the other one shot him._"

Shepard cursed under his breath and lowered his weapon, the team following suit. "_You expect me to believe Nihlus was murdered by another turian?_"

"_I think they knew each other... He let his guard down and Saren killed him._" As the name flowed through the com and reached her ears, Charlie straightened up at the edge on her chair. "_Shot him right in the back! I"m just lucky he didn't see me behind the crates..._"

_Saren was with the Geth?_

"I know I said I hate the guy, but now I'm feeling a little guilty."Joker admitted.

"No one deserves that..." Charlie sighed, shaking her head.

"_We were told the protean beacon was brought to the space port, what happened to it?_" Shepard asked.

"_It's over on the other platform, probably where that Turian, Saren, was headed. He hopped on the cargo train when he killed your friend... I knew that beacon was trouble, everythings gone to hell since we found it. First that damn mothership, then the attack... They killed everyone..._"

The dockworker had confirmed Ash's hunch, the team dismissed themselves and continued to the tram area where they defeat the last of the remaining Geth and boarded the tram.

As they reached the other side of the platform and exited the tram, a gleam of light on metal caught Alenko's eye. "_Demolition charges, Commander. The Geth must have planted them._"

"_Hurry! We need to find them all and shut them down._"

_"Alenko, you're our explosives expert, take care of the charges while Williams and I take care of the Geth._" Shepard ordered, as he and Ash began to clear the Geth ahead of them. The team moved through the platform and cut through the forces with ease, and approached the platform where the beacon stood tall.

"Normandy, the beacon is secure-" Shepard turned away from the sight and signaled for the Normandy while his team got a better look at the device.

"_This is amazing! actual working prothean technology. Unbelievable!_" Alenko mused.

Ash shook her head. "_It wasn't doing anything like this when they dug it up..._"

"_Something must have activated it..._" Alenko squinted up at the beacon, as Ash turned and walked back towards the Commander. Alenko wanted nothing more than to turn and join his teammates, but he found himself being tugged closer and closer by the device, and as the fuzzy images began to pour into his mind, the Lieutenant let out a scream of agony as he felt several headache spikes nipping at his skull.

"_Alenko!_" Shepard bellowed, running to push the Lieutenant over to Ash before the beacon claimed it's prize, and began pouring the vision into Shepard's head, picking him up off the ground in the process.

"Commander!" Ash cried, letting go of Alenko and attempting to run towards her superior, but Alenko had a strong hold on her arm now. "_No, don't touch him! It's too dangerous!_"

The beacon exploded in a flash of green, sending Shepard flying back to the foot of his teammates. Alenko released Ash's arm, and she raced to check if the Commander was conscience.

"Normandy, this is Alenko requesting pick-up... The commander is down and the beacon is destroyed." Alenko managed to call through the pain in his voice. Charlie got to her feet while Joker eased the ship into Eden prime's atmosphere.

"How close can you get?" Charlie asked, Joker gave her a sly smirk and ignored the question, bringing them to the teams location in minutes. Charlie watched from Alenko's head cam as the Normandy came reeling in to save the day, waiting until they where at least a football feild away before she raced off the bridge and down to the shuttle bay, to help Ash and Alenko pull the Commander aboard Normandy.

* * *

_**Okay, I had this whole chapter typed out yesterday, but then my computer decided to run the updater and deleted EVERYTHING! So, this chapter is pretty basic, I tried to get as much detail as I could remember in. Enjoy, hopefully I'll have the next one up before the weekend ends. :)**_


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